Emotionless »« Newt

TWENTY

Teresa's words hang in the air, thick as steel. It takes pure, precious seconds to process the meaning of her words, what that could possibly impact, how it could affect everything they've worked for this entire time. Trains of thought slowing down, stopping, then suddenly whirring at a hundred miles an hour down the spiralling track.

"Oh, shit."

The boys turn around at the sound of Leandra's voice, and suddenly she's running, her feet pounding against the ground with a ferocity they haven't seen before. Only Jorge seems to process what's going on first, rushing after her with his shoes scraping against the floor, hand reaching out and securing on her shoulder, when suddenly she whirls around and everything happens too fast for the others to see, and before they realise what's happening he's on his knees facing then with Leandra's gun pressed against his temple.

Brenda nearly screams, covering her mouth in shock, but her other hand has the gun pointed right at Leah's head. The boys' eyes all go wide, watching, grabbing their own weapons. Newt's heart is hammering in his chest, rendering him completely and wholly unable to move, sounds drowning in his head. It was a lie. It was all a lie, and he fell for it.

The adrenaline of all the people in the room is pounding in Leandra's skin, bursting through her veins, but the clouded look in her eyes seems to fade after a second and she realises what she's doing. With a gasp, she drops the gun on the ground, hands starting to shake as she realises what might've happened. How she let the people around her control her once again. She was so careful... since she met them again months ago, thinking she had another chance... and it was like the experiments with the Cranks all over again.

Jorge slowly stands up, backing away from her and taking his own gun out, but the guns of the others never lower. After what they just saw, what they just heard, her reaction, they have no reason to trust Leandra. And all Newt can think about is how she made him promise nothing would change even though now everything's changed, and how he never in his wildest dreams saw this coming.

"Wait." His voice is hoarse, in pain, and he slowly stands up with his hand supporting himself as it holds against the back of his chair. "So... is it true? You're Ava Paige's daughter?" But he already knows the answer, all of them do, and there's nothing Leandra can say in response to that.

"That's how they kept finding us in the Scorch," the forgotten Teresa continues behind them, digging Leandra's hole deeper and deeper. "It wasn't always me. She has a tracker in her arm. And even before the Maze, she never told any of us that Ava was her mom. She's been lying to us our whole lives, and I only found out in the last six months."

Leandra slowly raises a hand, pointing a dangerous finger at Teresa. Everyone's hate for her? Multiplied in Leandra for Teresa. "You know, I never liked you. You were in the group so I never said a thing, but in the end you always ran back to Mom."

"What, so you're Leandra Paige?" Thomas says scornfully.

She scoffs. "Course not, Thomas. I took my dad's surname. Obviously."

"No. Stop," Newt cuts in, but her anger fades as she feels his hurt shrivelling her up inside, worse than any other emotion in this room. He raises a hand, pointing at her, but it quickly becomes a fist he presses against his mouth as he tries to contain himself. "You... We thought you were on our side. The whole time, we thought..."

"Listen to me, all of you," Leandra calls, managing to keep her voice calm and level as she looks around at all the guns pointed at her. It's difficult, not exploding like she knows they want to, but she's managed to control her anger all her life. She's not going to ruin that now. "I want you all to live. I swear I do. But I believe wholeheartedly in finding a cure. I only used the tracker so they could find me again, because I'm probably their best chance. I guess... I was just biding out my time with you guys. So let me go, and I'll leave."